As the recaps note, lots and lots of challenges. Demon Clown is bizarre.

Tonight in Puebla is the Asturiano vs Pequeno Warrior mask versus hair. Asturiano is a talented if a undersized tecnico (though being grouped in as a Puebla luchador seems to be his more immediate problem) – I’d be disappointed if he lost to one of the more individualistic luchadors around. The actual main event is another Shocker versus Rush singles match.

Terra returned for this show – sort of. There were major buffering problems until a couple minutes into the first fall, and then it worked okay from there. I’m under the assumption the problems on Sunday are different than the issue this past Friday – that was never even acknowledged during the show.

It was a very skippable show. Dragon Rojo as a tecnico still makes no sense but that’s obviously where they were going.

Dragon Rojo not with Polvora and Rey Escorpion, so maybe things will go better? Seems like next week should be the Coliseo Tag Team title match, but also seems like next week should be a visit to Arena Mexico.

Like this:

AAA TV (FRI) 06/27/2014Auditorio General José María Arteaga, Querétaro, Querétaro [@manayk, AAA]0) Angel Rebelde, Gremlin, Optimus b Castigador, Dark Crazy, Drabeklocals dark match1) Dinastía, Mascarita Sagrada, Mini Drago b Mini Abismo Negro, Mini Charly Manson, Mini Psycho ClownDinastia beat Mini Psycho Clown2) Argos, Carta Brava, El Apache, Súper Fly b Aerostar, Argenis, Ludxor, VenumSuper Fly actually beat Aerostar with a super powerbomb when Aerostar tried his top rope huracanrana.3) Bengala, Drago, Fénix b Daga, Eterno, Steve PainFenix beat Daga with multiple head drops. Fenix felt he should get a title shot for beating Daga. Bengala pointed out he was the one who won a title shot, so Fenix has got to wait. Fenix suggested he put up his Fusion title on the line in the cruiserweight title match (unifying it with the Cruiserweight one) to make it fair. Bengala accepted that, but Daga demanded Eterno & Steve Pain be allowed to be in his corner in the match, and the match take place at TripleMania. Aerostar did not appear to get a vote in this.4) Angélico, Australian Suicide, Jack Evans b Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Hijo del Fantasma, Pentagón Jr.Crowd chanted for Pentagon and Pentagon ripped up Suicide’s mask, but the tecnicos came back to win with Jack’s 630 senton on Pentagon.5) Electroshock, Myzteziz, Psycho Clown b Averno, Jeff Jarrett, TexanoElectroshock hit Jarrett with a guitar for the win, then challenged him to a hair match.

Air Date: 07/05

I doubt Jeff Jarrett and Electroshock are actually having a hair match – though Jarrett could do worse if he wants publicity video for his vanity project – but teasing that direction suggests Mesias isn’t going to be back in time for TripleMania. That’s been one really rough arm injury, I feel bad for him.

The end product of the unexplained tournament matches is the same multiman match AAA always does for the cruiserweight championship, just with a little random story setting it up and the irrelevant Fusion championship going away. It’s billed as a unification match, but it seems likely we won’t see the belt for the TV show that no longer exists much after TripleMania. Pain and Eterno appear to be in the match, which kind of defeats the point of needing reasons to be in the match, but at least it’s a good match. It’s also almost exactly the match that was originally supposed to happen back in Tuxtla – Daga, Eterno, Steve Pain, Aerostar, Bengala, Axel – when Daga didn’t wrestle. Fenix is a significant upgrade on Axel.

If Daga gets his guys in, Aerostar should ask for his guys to be in.

If that’s the midcard multiman match, maybe Pentagon Jr. versus Australian Suicide will not be? They’re still heading to that mask match and don’t have any other obvious role (though they could be thrown into a match a lot like tonight.)

AAA continues their Friday night taping stretch on Thursday in Xalapa next week.

CMLL did not air on Terra last night. There was no explanation from CMLL or Terra. Terra had advertised the airing earlier in the week, and did not reply to inquiries about why the show wasn’t streaming. Terra’s done the same thing when the show actually was pulled from airing. I suspect CMLL decided the show was not to air tonight. (Since Informa did air, CMLL is probably still planning on airing events on Terra, but two events missed like this in the same week is not a good sign.)

It is beyond me why either company couldn’t just say they weren’t airing the show. It’s offensive CMLL refuses to exert the very little effort it would’ve taken just to say “sorry, we’re not going to be on tonight”.

This is a bit unfair, but this sort of thing is why you should probably not buy TripleMania on iPPV live. I’m going to buy it, because I’m a crazy person with a blog. I recommend everyone else just waiting to see if everything went right and then buying it on replay. The good thing with CMLL is their shows are free, so it costs only time. AAA’s iPPV won’t be free (it’s got Pay right there in the name.) I know they’ll give the money again back if it doesn’t work again, but why even bother with it if they can be bothered to prove they can put on the show?

I completely recommend going to TripleMania if you’re close enough to Arena Ciudad de Mexico. If you’re not, maybe go watch SummerSlam, maybe find something else to do a nice summer night. If everything goes right, the show will still be ready for you later. And if it’s not, then you would’ve wasted your evening anyway.

No idea if CMLL will air on Terra this Sunday. Don’t play this Sunday around that either.

back to show

Sombra/Rush vs Niebla/Shocker is the first marketable concept for an anniversary show main event outside of Atlantis/Ultimo Guerrero. There’s some obvious problems. It would be X-Fly levels of cynicism to have Shocker put up (and ultimately lose) his hair on two straight CMLL major shows. Namajague did lose his mask and hair in separate matches within a month of each other, so it’s not out of the question. A more palatable solution would be to have Negro Casas in Shocker’s spot (and the most We’ve Learned Nothing! setup would be Sombra/Niebla vs Rush/Casas relevos suicidas, where Sombra & Niebla end up in the apuesta match.) The other problem is trusting Mr. Niebla to make it to the Anniversary show.

Juicio Final seems much more likely to be a random women’s cage. They left it at a tag team apuesta match last night, but CMLL never does those with women and they frequently do the cage match deal. The cage match is never a good match, but it did seem to draw more than people were expecting last time around (Goya Kong’s loss.) The finish is likely to be the same here, with someone no longer needing to cover their face up in photos any more.

The Revolucionarios are breaking up? I have no idea why they would be breaking up, nor am I quite sure which guy would be going tecnico. (Dragon Rojo, maybe? He does have a few more tecnico spots of late.) It seems like a unit that’s better together than they would be apart, and not one I have especially a lot of interest in feuding among themselves.

The top two feuds keep on going. Note the women’s match includes Seductora and Sugehit but not Blanca and Marcela, which is the opening to include even more people (or, much less likely, just switch it to a Sugehit/Seductora feud.) The opener looks good but hasn’t even been exactly the match it could’ve been because of the restrictions put on openers.

AAA on Televisa: 2014-05-31
CMLL on Terra: 2014-06-01 – I probably should be including the Sunday Terra on this list for clarity. Titan/Roja was good but didn’t quite make it.
CMLL Guerreros del Ring on 52MX: 2014-05-31
CMLL on CadenaTres: 2014-05-31

Very low attendance for this show. Show was taped, but there seems to be a lot of IWRG taped that doesn’t make air anywhere.

Tonight’s Arena Mexico show is highlighted by the En Busca de un Idolo epilogue ciberentico. All eight finalists and the two trainers face off. (Hechicero gets another shot at Negro Casas!) Last year’s ciberentico came down to Negro Casas defeating Virus and the year before had Ultimo Guerrero defeat Atlantis, so the actual finalists in this tournament haven’t fared well and it’s unlikely to be different with a group of novatos. Still, not sure there’s too much sense in complaining about a possible Casas/Virus finishing sequence.

The actual main event has that Atlantis/Ultimo Guerrero feud continuing on. CMLL’s been pushing both the Juicio Final show on 08/01 and the idea of Atlantis/UG needing a date strong, likely hoping fans will connect the doubts. I’m highly doubtful CMLL would actually run the show on that date, but any major mask match happening in about five weeks would need to start being advertised. (This is probably more an issue for Princesa Blanca and Princesa Sugehit, who’ve made mask vs hair challenges elsewhere but not in the middle of the ring yet.) Rush & La Sombra team with Ultimo Guerrero and Mr. Niebla & Shocker team with Atlantis to keep the other feuds going, though it might be time for something of a pivot – if Los Indeseables (/Ingobernables) are meant to be something other than straight rudos, then maybe they need to feud with other rudos and go after the Guerreros trios titles.

AAA continues a stretch of Friday night tapings in Queretaro. This is a Jeff Jarrett appearance, who appeared on TV last week with a video promo this past week building facing Electroshock in this match. If there’s a plan to do anything more than the usual all star tag with Jarrett this year, it probably starts here since he may not be back again for a while. This is more likely just a show to pass the time until AAA gets a little bit closer to TripleMania, but it’s still a very attractive card: Los Angeles de Lucha Libre face Pentagon Jr., Fantasma and Pirata Morgan, Anarquia take on Bengala, Drago and Fenix and Los Cadetes del Espacio (& Argenis) face Argos, Carta Brava, Super Fly and Apache in three possibly great (or Great) matches. We all love the En Bsuca deun Idolo matches here, but it’s quite likely the best fight tonight in lucha libre land will take place on the AAA show – they’ve got more matches with a shot of being the best. The opener is a minis match with no lineup, though AAA did confirm Dinastia will be return for the first time in a while.

Financial Times does the what is lucha libre piece. Highlights include El Hijo del Santo compare working in the US to slavery, Perro Aguayo Jr. saying he feels like Floyd Mayweather, and Konnan saying only 40 luchadors have ever made big money.

Zeuxis says beating Estrellita is just the first step in a master plan to winning the world title and then expanding her reach to the US. This seems more like a world domination plan when I write it way.

Fantasma talks about his match in Xalapa, says his big achievement in AAA has been making sure Psycho Clown doesn’t win the megatitle. I think Psycho Clown’s been taking care of that himself.

The promotion that used to run shows in Arena Xalapa have now moved to Arena Valladolid just outside the city. The AAA affiliated shows now in Xalapa seem to be promoted by a different local lucahdor; I think there’s at least three groups around Xalapa right now.

Like this:

AAA-Televisa: last Friday from Puebla, with the Psycho Clown/Texano announcement. Probably top 3, but they’re opt to do unusual things on these one show tapings (which will be the norm for the next few weeks.) No UTDN shows listed on the schedule for the immediate future.

== CMLL ==

FOX2: Leyenda de Azul was the only match they promoted for the show, but it’s been a while since they’ve had one match go an hour so probably the tercera cut to shreds (instead of, say, the news section from Informa.)

52MX: More of the Stuka/Malefico build, Atlanits/Titan/Marco vs Guerreros

Claro: The show no one (but the 1000 so people in the building saw) – Revolucionarios vs Maximo/Porky/Volador, Panther/Ephesto hopefully.

C3: Fuego/Maximo/Valiente vs Invasors. Is going to be one of those weeks with a little too much Maximo?

Marisela Pena says TripleMania will be on iPPV. No other details are known. When Marisela says something, that’s usually what’s happening, but I’m still skeptical this thing is going to come off. It’s not the complete failure last year, it’s doing nothing since to show they’re going to get it right this time.